The revelations were made in a BBC documentary, “Ticket to Hide,” which will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday.

Calais court’s Deputy Prosecutor Julie Colaert told the program she saw up to ten British smugglers prosecuted each month for promising migrants a “guaranteed passage” to the UK.

“In the last two years, we have seen more and more English smugglers.”

“Trafficking gangs are employing them to take people across in their own cars. The migrants pay a lot of money because it’s sold as guaranteed passage to the UK,” she added.

The program also revealed that car and van drivers, as opposed to heavy truck drivers, were being recruited by smuggling groups as they were perceived to be less likely to be searched by police at the port.

The BBC detailed the most recent case of Basir Haji, from Preston in Lancashire, who was sentenced to 12 months in prison after he was caught at Calais with two Iraqi men in the boot of his car.

He was prosecuted after admitting he had agreed to transport the men to England for £500 (US$789) each. Haji was convicted of trying to facilitate the entrance of foreign citizens in circumstances incompatible with human dignity.

He told the BBC he had been forced into smuggling due to mounting debts.